Hailee Steinfeld set to Impress in 2013/14

Steinfeld made a name for herself as always being one of the best dressed stars on the red carpet.

In 2010, young actress Hailee Steinfeld burst into the world of film with a truly magnificent performance in True Grit alongside Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. Steinfeld’s performance in the Western was nominated for an Academy Award. The nomination strangely came in the category of Best Supporting Actress; strange because Steinfeld was really the only female character, logically making the lead actress er… Matt Damon. Anyway, since that performance Steinfeld has moved away from acting but looks set to return with a very busy schedule ahead for films released in the next couple of years.

Steinfeld began her career acting in short films at the age of 8, in order to gain experience of the acting industry. In 2009 she starred in the award winning short film She’s a Fox which featured at many international film festivals so people in the know really recognised her as a great talent even before True Grit hit the cinema screens. Clearly her talent shone through at the True Grit auditions as Hailee Steinfeld was chosen out of 15,000 girls to play the part of Mattie Ross, the girl who hires Jeff Bridges Deputy U.S. Marshall to find and kill the man who murdered her father. Steinfeld is also the actor granted the privilege of saying the name of the film in the film by telling Jeff Bridges that he has ‘true grit’.

After rising to fame through that performance Steinfeld went off the radar for a couple of years. You’ve got to imagine that a big reason for this was to concentrate on her studies; Steinfeld is, after all, just 15 years old at the time of writing. But she was also chosen to be the face of worldwide fashion brand Miu Miu for their 2011 campaign. But now she has returned with a whole host of projects coming up in 2013 and 2014, most notably perhaps landing the role of Juliet Capulet in Carlo Carlei’s retelling of the most famous love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet.

Firstly though, Steinfeld is set to star alongside British starlet Keira Knightley and everyone’s favourite Incredible Hulk Mark Ruffalo in Can a Song Save Your Life? which, in all honesty, is something I probably won’t be watching. Another project Hateship, Friendship sees Steinfeld working with some more big Hollywood names in the form of Kristen Wiig and the rejuvenated Guy Pearce. The upcoming project I am most looking forward to that Steinfeld is involved in is Gavin Hood’s science fiction film Ender’s Game, slated for an autumn release in 2013. Although I am yet to be impressed with Hood’s direction (Rendition was an average, slow burning thriller, and the less said about X-Men Origins: Wolverine the better) but with a synopsis that reads “70 years after a horrific alien war, an unusually gifted child is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion” it has grabbed my attention: it also stars science fiction heavyweight Harrison Ford who still has a huge fan following despite winning my award for most boring person in the world.

Also this year Steinfeld appeared in the music video for The Cab’s single Endlessly

Steinfeld continues to work in 2014 with The Keeping Room, being directed by the same man who brought Harry Brown to the big screen back in 2009. She is also rumoured to be in the comedy Why We Broke Up although confirmation is still being awaited for that. And Steinfeld has recently been announced to star alongside Kevin Costner in the thriller Three Days to Kill being directed by McG (This Means War) and produced and written by action God Luc Beeson.

It is clear that despite the couple of years break that Steinfeld has had she has a huge career ahead of her. And even though she missed out on winning the Oscar for True Grit I think an Academy Award is more than certain for this huge talent.

Henry Cavill: Hollywood’s Nearly Man

This week the first trailer for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot Man of Steel was released. In the starring role is British actor Henry Cavill. The role of Clark Kent and Superman is always going to be a huge one as he is one of the most famous and iconic characters ever created; the fact that the film is being produced by Christopher Nolan perhaps adds even more pressure onto the film itself too after his success with Batman. This film could make or break Cavill’s career: if it goes well Cavill will be leading a worldwide franchise and will have work set for the next few years, but if it goes wrong he could easily be thrown back into the pool of obscurity.

Henry Cavill is relatively new to this acting lark having really only made a name for himself in 2007. He starred in the films Tristan & Isolde and Stardust in this year but he was far from the leading man. It was in fact on television where Cavill got his big break, in British television drama The Tudors. Cavill starred in The Tudors up until 2010 and then went back to the world of movies full time. Last year he starred in Immortals which was deemed pretty average on all floors and this year he appeared in The Cold Light of Day alongside Bruce Willis so his career certainly seemed to be on the up before he was plucked from nowhere and chosen to don the tights and cape of Superman. It is a huge, very quick leap to the top that Cavill has made but this has not come without his fair share of bad luck and near misses that could have seen his career pan out very very differently.

Back in 2004 the Superman franchise saw an unsuccessful return to the big screen with Superman Returns. The film was eventually directed by Bryan Singer who dropped out of a third X-Men film in favour of the job. However, originally Superman was to be rebooted with Supernatural producer McG at the helm and when that was the case Henry Cavill was set to star as Superman, but when Singer dropped out so did Cavill and Brandon Routh replaced him. This was probably a lucky escape for Cavill because, well, where is Brandon Routh now?

Henry Cavill and his following probably aren’t huge fans of Robert Pattinson because of what happened next. In 2005, Cavill was the subject of a write-in effort made by Harry Potter fans in an attempt to get their man Cavill cast in the fourth instalment of the franchise Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Cedric Diggory. As Potter fans will know Diggory has a huge part to play in Goblet of Fire and the success of these films surely would have helped boost Cavill’s profile. In 2008, Twilight was released. The author of these vampire romance books, Stephanie Meyer, claimed that Henry Cavill would be the “perfect Edward [Cullen]” and showed her preference to Cavill being cast in the lead male role. By the time production of the film began Cavill was deemed too old to play the part and lost out to Robert Pattinson once again who has gone on to become a world famous actor (despite his acting skills not being that good).

Cavill still has his eyes on the James Bond role once Daniel Craig leaves.

In 2005 MGM were looking for the man who was going to become the next James Bond for 2006’s Casino Royale. There was reportedly a list of 200 possible people to replace the outoging Pierce Brosnan. The man who eventually landed the life changing role was Daniel Craig, who actually turned down the job after the first offer but upon reading the script decided to change his mind. It was later revealed by Martin Campbell, director of Casino Royale, that the only other actor in serious contention was Henry Cavill, however he was only 22 years old and this time was deemed too young for the role!

Despite all of this bad luck for Henry Cavill it could have been even worse. There are rumours that Cavill auditioned for and almost got the job of Batman before Christian Bale won it but Cavill himself has debunked this rumour and said there was absolutely no truth behind it. With all of those near misses in his career it is really good to see that Cavill has now landed what is sure to be the most iconic role of his career. Man of Steel is in the safe hands of Snyder and Nolan and will surely springboard Cavill’s film career into action making his first option for so many more films in the future!

‘This Means War’ – A Review.

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Film makers have always wondered how they could get men to go and see a rom-com without being forced by their partner, the solution they came up with? Cast Bane and Captain Kirk in the leading roles. And, luckily for them and for audiences everywhere, it is a right little treat.

Directed by McG (executive producer of hit TV shows Supernatural and Chuck; director of Terminator Salvation and the Charlie’s Angels films) This Means War is a ‘brom-com’ about two of the best CIA agents who put their friendship to the test when they discover they are dating the same woman.

Reese Witherspoon is Lauren, the woman at the centre of the exploits. When her friend signs her up to a dating website Tuck (Tom Hardy) finds her and asks her out on a date, then after the date she bumps into FDR (Chris Pine) whose persistence, after a rocky start, eventually persuades her to date him too. When the agents find out they are dating the same woman they put down ground rules, soon to be broken, and begin spying on (and sabotaging) each other’s dates with Lauren. All this whilst also trying to catch Heinrich, an international criminal.

Witherspoon’s character is important to the story but, in my opinion, was not likeable as a character. At the start I just found her to be annoying and at the end I was still annoyed by her, especially when she tried to take the moral high ground over FDR and Tuck even though she had been dating the both of them behind each other’s backs.

Tom Hardy’s performance was a calm, understated one, slightly outshone by Chris Pine, but he put in a good performance nonetheless and was believable as a character. You felt his feelings for Lauren but more importantly you felt his friendship with FDR and his love for FDR also. The friendship between the two male leads was vital for this film to work and it was believable down to every single factor.

 

Chris Pine is the real star of This Means War though. He is doing what he does best here, he plays cocky agent FDR who has a real eye for the ladies and, in his own words, is an ‘expert’ with them. Pine’s performance is also the funniest of the three and hopefully he will be in more comedy films throughout his career, if he has enough time away from captaining the USS Enterprise. FDR’s character arc is easily charted throughout the film too and he shows real growth by the end of the movie.

There are plenty of laughs and the film is thoroughly enjoyable. The character’s interactions between the two men are always pretty funny, especially the little ‘relationship-esque’ bickering and FDR constantly calling Tuck when he hasn’t heard from him for over an hour. This Means War is also clever too as one of the very first lines in the film ends up being very important as it foreshadows how they are eventually found by Heinrich.

This Means War provides a lot of enjoyment and is well worth a watch. The real love story isn’t between Lauren and the two agents, but between the two agents themselves: Tuck and FDR. Their friendship is what makes this film work and the fact that they care so much about each other allows the audience to care for them just as much. It will make you laugh a lot and give you some good fight scenes at the same time.

My Rating: 7/10.